BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CROSBY TOWNSHIP - Pleased with proposals to develop a museum and Indian burial ground at Fernald, members of the Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) are preparing to help.
They offer years of experience in tearing through red tape and dealing with the Department of Energy (DOE). They have official standing to request government funding, resources and consideration of the plan.
Members of the CAB On-Site Committee said Wednesday the diverse groups planning the future of the 1,050-acre site of the former uranium processing plant should work together to better accomplish their goals.
"We need one initiative to think big and come up with one vision," CAB Co-Chair Jim Bierer said. "Each project would retain its own integrity. . . . It's just a matter of aligning all of the different projects."
The full CAB will take up the proposal when it meets at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at Fernald.
Indian tribal groups nationwide want part of the site dedicated as a reburial ground for their ancestors. Thousands of sets of remains that cannot be identified and returned to a particular tribe are sitting on shelves in museums and government warehouses, waiting for a final resting place.
The Crosby Township Historical Society and historians want the government to build a museum to preserve the legacy of the Cold War plant.
Such a museum could include the Fernald Living History Project, which is just getting under way. By videotaping interviews with people who have lived and worked around Fernald since its inception in 1951, the project seeks to record the impact Fernald had on the community and individuals.
DOE officials have said these initiatives fit in with their land use plan for the site, which is due to be approved soon and implemented as the cleanup is completed around 2008. The bulk of the land would become a wetlands, prairie and forest preserve. And, because some low-level radioactive waste is being buried at Fernald, the property would remain under government control in perpetuity.
"I think this is the way to go - to preserve something that fits in with the history of the site, rather than just making it into Nothingville," CAB member Bob Tabor said.
Living History project leader Steven Depoe, of the University of Cincinnati Center for Environmental Communication Studies, said he could use the expertise and resources of CAB.
His panel recently incorporated and is applying for non-profit status and private and government grants. Already, they are struggling with business realities behind the vision of producing educational resources and historical records from the lives of those affected by Fernald.
On Saturday, CAB will consider sending a letter to DOE officials in support of the Living History, museum and burial ground projects. The group may form a committee dedicated to stewarding the Fernald future use plans.
